Academic questions Federal Govt's climate change policies

A Gold Coast scientist has expressed concern about the new Federal Government's plans to wind back climate change authorities.

The Government is expected to abolish the Climate Change Authority, the Climate Commission and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation as it moves to its direct action scheme.

Professor Clyde Wild from Griffith University says Australia should be setting an example on climate change.

"That really bothers me, it really does, while Australia is a small player in causing climate change, we're going to be a big victim of climate change," he said.

"We can't stop climate change by anything we do in this country but we can provide a lead, we can provide an example that others are morally obliged to follow, instead it seems we're providing and example for them to ignore."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is set to release its latest assessment at the end of the month.

There have been reported leaks of the assessment suggesting previously predicted rates of global warming were overestimated.

However, professor Wild says that is not his experience.

"Anytime if you want to look through the 20th century there's been periods of no warming for 10 or 15 years, if you look from now and go back to 1998, which until recently was the hottest year on record, there's been no warming but look back five years, 10 years, 20 years, 25 years there has been warming," he said.

"Cherrypick your period you can show there's no warming. The reality is it's still going on."